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Benchmark indices have extended the gains led by buying among financials, capital goods and auto shares.
The market sentiment was boosted by data showing that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) made substantial purchases of Indian stocks on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, traders will roll over positions in the futures & options (F&O) segment from the near-month March 2014 series to April 2014 series. The near-month March 2014 F&O contracts expire today, 27 March 2014.
By 14:35 PM, the 30-share BSE Sensex was up 141 points at 22,236 levels while the 50-unit Nifty was up 51 points at 6,653 levels.
Adds Ravi Nathani, Technical analyst at Nsetoday.com, “As per technical's are concerned Nifty has stiff resistance around 6660 for short term, in simple terms to understand traders must buy Nifty on dips with a target of 6660 & 6710 in coming 3-4 trading sessions.”
On the global front, Asian markets were in skittish mood on Thursday following a soft finish on Wall Street and amid simmering tensions over Ukraine, while Chinese tech stocks took a tumble in sympathy with their U.S. counterparts.
Trading was thin and choppy with the month and quarter-end fast approaching. Tokyo stocks initially skidded as investors counted down to a rise in sales tax that is expected to chill consumer spending and test the market's faith in Abenomics.
But the Nikkei met solid support near 14,200, as it has for weeks now, and rebounded to be up 0.6%.
The rupee is trading at 60.18/19 versus its close of 60.14/15 on Wednesday and off the session low of 60.27 as gains in the domestic share market hurt sentiment for the greenback.
On the sectoral front, BSE Bankex has jumped by nearly 2% followed by counters like Capital Goods, Realty, power, Consumer Durables and Auto, all gaining by 1% each. However, BSE Healthcare index has declined by over 1%.
Interest rate sensitive auto stocks rose as the Reserve Bank of India is widely expected to keep its main lending rate viz. the repo rate unchanged after a monetary policy review on 1 April 2014 as inflation has eased. Shares of car major Maruti Suzuki India scaled record high. Hero MotoCorp hit 52-week high.
From the financial space, SBI, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and HDFC have gained between 1-4%.
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has dipped nearly 2% to Rs 319 in otherwise firm market as the stock is quoting ex-dividend.
Larsen and Toubro (L&T) has moved higher by 1% to Rs 1,284 after the company said the buildings and factories business of L&T Construction has won new housing orders worth Rs 1,981 crore in March 2014.
The broader markets are outperforming the benchmark indices- BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are up 0.9-1.1%.
The market breadth in BSE remains firm with 1,618 shares advancing and 1,058 shares declining.
